14th April 2009 - Mazda Museum in Hiroshima and Kyoto

This morning the heavens opened up and everything was absolutely drenched.





I did prepare myself through purchasing an ultra compact umbrella for 700Y a few days earlier. At least it kept my hair dry...



In Hiroshima, it's impossible to cross the major intersections as there are no traffic lights for the pedestrians to cross... What they have done instead was build a vast network of underground ramps and sections which enable you to cross the road underneath the streets whilst also gaining access to shops etc without getting wet during raining periods.






This morning's mission was to locate a place which served bacon/eggs... We strolled into the shopping mall attached to Hiroshima station - unfortunately it's called Asse.



Inside is a UCC cafe which served euro style brekkie.

The breakfast deals came with coffee (best perculated coffee we've experienced yet)...



As you can see... they were uber generous with the allocation of milk.

The bacon was the size of a 20c piece, egg was neither fried nor poached... The salad had a wierd dressing on it.. Bread was too buttery (even for me)... and the sausages tasted like rubber bands. Verdict.. Fail.

Ee opted for the cheese and ham toasted sandwich... At least the didn't mess that one up.

Afterwards we did some shopping and I picked up some more car magazines and Ee picked up the next volume of the Twilight series. Around 12:30, we made our way to the southern JR line to catch the train to Mukainada station (pronounced Moo-Kai-Na-Da) on platform number 5. Mukainada is just 4 minutes and 2 stops away from Hiroshima station.

When you step on the platform and into the trains, it seems like you've stepped back in time. Everything is old but I guess it gives it a really nice character. There's no LCD or tv screens within the train like the ones in Tokyo... so it's hard to know what stop is next unless you can read Japanese off the ageing map attached above the roof of the doors or if you can listen to the train operator through the muffled 60 year old speaker system.

On the way to Mukainada, you will go past Mazda Stadium... it seems this end of town is owned by Mazda.

This is what greets you when you step off at Mukainada station

Looking into the distance at the top of the overpass.. there doesn't seem like there's much going on around here.

When you step out of the exit, you veer to the right path straight ahead... and through that narrow alleyway is the main road where the Mazda museum is situated.

You're advised to call up a few months in advance to book a slot on this tour (which is free).. You just need to be available at the 1pm timeslot. Once you sign in, you can walk around the showroom... I spotted a YELLOW NC MX5... first time I've seen one in this colour.

you are then ushered into a bus. No pics were allowed on the way to the museum/manufacturing plant... We did pass a massive port as well as "the 2nd largest privately owned bridge by a corporation" which stretched 560m long.

Once we arrived to the facility (after a 10 minute bus ride), we were greeted with a few of their models...

We were then introduced to a brief Mazda history lesson. Mazda in her early years manufactured cork and tools... They diversified into motorcycles and the below was used extensively in farms and commercial applications.

The below is Mazda's first attempt at making a passenger vehicle... believe it or not this small car seats 4 (they didn't elaborate whether or not these 4 people were midgets)

A MINT example of what we know locally as an RX3.

Yet another vintage classic

This is the Cosmo... Mazda's first attempt at a sports car and was powered by their first generation Wankel/Rotary Motor. There were quite a few design cues borrowed from the Cosmo which were carried over to the first generation Roadster/MX5 pictured next to it.

Here it is... I've finally found the world's CLEANEST and FINEST example of a NA6 MX5 (it's only got 14km on the odometer).

I wouldn't mind one of these in my garage :)

A showroom pony FD3S. The most beautiful stock sports car Japan has ever made. Period.

The next room was dedicated to this legend. The ACTUAL car Mazda won the Lemans 24 Hour race in. The engine has been separated from the car so that it can be viewed by drooling onlookers. This engine is a 4 rotor monster that drinks a litre of fuel to cover a distance of 2km (that's right... TWO kilometers).

The wheels on this car are 14" wide.

Ridiculous dishy rims manufactured by RAYS.

I've always had a soft spot for one of these since I saw them online a few years ago... I finally got to see how it looks in real life... I don't think I can fit in one! Mazda AZ-1 (there are a few floating around in Australia)

Next was the start to finish in the processes that the Mazda designers go through to develop a car (which apparently takes about 4 years for a model). The first step is sketching and claying a miniature model to base a design off

Then a 1:1 scale model is built (hobby collectors will have problems sneaking this one out of the factory in their pocket). Yes.. the below is completely made out of clay and paint.

Then another model is made of the shell with an empty interior so that the interior designers can work on the dimensions/internals of the interior.

This room lists all the separate components used in the RX8.

Here's a crash test RX8 at 50km/h into a wall... I wouldn't speed in this thing...

Here's what the rotary looks like straight out of a metal cast...

Here's the completed/machined rotor ready for installation.

The robots & machinery press the sheets of metal through moulds to create the aluminium panels... The below is the entire shell which has been completely put together by machines and robots. It is now ready for painting.

The manual assembly of the interior involves the following components.

After seeing the above processes in making a RX8, we walked into the actual manufacturing facility. I was like Charlie in Willie Wonka's Chocolate factory. It was amazing inside there (unfortunately I couldn't take any pics inside). It is a worthwhile experience if you have the capacity to do it.

Below are some concept cars on the other end of the tour. This is a hybrid car that runs on both petroleum and hydrogen.

Here's the Hybrid RX8 which is a Hydrogen or Petroleum powered Rotary vehicle.

How it works... The hydrogen tank (large cylinder on the left) looks dangerous.

Here's some snaps of one of their more recent concept cars.. the Ryuga

We then made it back to the main showroom at the entrance to the Mazda museum. Here's the new Mazda 3 (known locally in Japan as the Axela)

Kitted out with Mazdaspeed seats

Looks like we may be upgrading from our MX5 to the new one soon...

Straight after we left the Mazda Museum, we rushed back to the hotel in Hiroshima, grabbed our luggage and then ran back to the station to catch our Bullet Train to Kyoto.. We were only given 25 minutes to do all this once we left the Mazda Museum and we made it with 30 seconds to spare.

When we got to Kyoto, it was wet there too!

After we dropped off our bags... we headed straight to the market that we visited a few years go... as the shopping there was awesome.

We came across this store where I purchased a jacket and bag.

Stumbling around a few more hours.. we needed dinner and decided to try the "Om Rice" suggested by good old Addy in the previous post. We settled on dining at the Lipton teahouse (they also had a large selection of desserts there as well which aided in our decision)

Here's what my Om-Rice looked like.

Beneath, the Omelette was filled with fried tomato rice.

Ee ordered the carbonara - they put on the parmesan without asking whether or not we take it... Our table smelled like feet for a while.

Strawberry tart for dessert :)

We visited a few neighbouring stores to the Lipton restaurant and came across this one store that sold traditional hand fans. These fans ranged from $30AUD to about $500AUD

It was getting late and all the stores were closing up so we started heading back to our hotel. Then we came across this mega parfait... We may be giving it a go tomorrow :)